Honeybees and Wax

1 Introduction.- I: The Nature and Production of Beeswax.- 2 The Origin of Beeswax: an Historical Perspective.- The Classical Era.- The Renaissance.- The Enlightenment.- 3 Source of Secretion.- The Cuticle: the Search for Holes.- Filaments or Microtubules?.- Tracheation.- The Epidermis.- Fat Body and Oenocytes.- Synchronising Cellular Activity.- 4 Rise and Fall of the Epithelium.- Age and the Division of Labour.- Rejuvenation of Old Bees.- Newly Settled Swarms.- Laying Workers.- Racial Differences.- Tragedies and Disease.- Winter.- Cell Height and Secretory Performance.- 5 Composition and Synthesis of Beeswax.- Gross Composition of Beeswax.- The Proteins of Beeswa.- Proof of Synthesis.- Routes of Synthesis.- Recent Refinements.- 6 Food Conversion Ratios in the Production of Beeswax.- The Agricultural Chemists.- Cumulative Ratios.- Direct Costs of Wax Production.- Measures of Conversion Efficiency.- Temperature and Wax Production.- II: The Manipulation Of Wax By Honeybees.- 7 Manipulation of Wax Scales.- Removal of the Wax Scales(Casteel 1912).- The Scale-Removing Organ(Casteel 1912).- Mandibulation of the Scales.- Free Scales (Casteel 1912).- Partial Removal of Scales(Casteel 1912).- Producers and Builders(Casteel 1912).- 8 Metamorphosis of Wax.- The Structure of Virgin Scale Wax.- Optical and Diffraction Studies.- Crystallography.- Mechanical Properties of Wax.- Maturation of Newly Constructed Combs.- Foreign Substances.- 9 The Construction of Cells.- Minor Building Operations.- Inception of the Nest.- The Irregular Nature of Cells.- Recognition of Cell Patterns.- Interlude: Bigger Cells, Bigger Bees.- Assessment of Cell Size.- The Cell Base.- 10 The Construction of Combs.- Parallelism between Combs.- Festoons and Torsion.- Festoons and Comb Growth.- Evidence of a Sense of Equilibrium.- Application of the Sense of Equilibrium.- The Orientation of Combs.- III: Stimuli for Production and Manipulation of Wax.- 11 The Nectar Flow.- The Stimulus of Spring.- Winter, the